A main reason ObamaCare is causing health insurance costs to shoot far out of the range of affordability is that it mandates coverage we won’t ever need. For example, men are required to carry insurance that covers maternity care. When HHS Commissar Kathleen Supercilious said they need it during yesterday’s congressional testimony, Rep Renee Ellmers (R-NC) attempted to school the Abortion Queen on the birds and the bees:

“A single male, aged 32, does not need maternity coverage. To the best of your knowledge, has a man ever delivered a baby?”

Rep Ellmers forgets that in the universe inhabited by our moonbat overlords, gender is a fluid construct and essentially meaningless, so yes men can give birth, assuming you allow liberals to define the word “man.” If you have the belly for it, refer to the cases of Estafania Coronados and Tracy Lehuanani Lagondino.

For those whose stomachs are so strong that they can wade right into the ideologically contrived freak show that serves progressives for reality, here’s a photo of Tracy (a.k.a. Thomas Beatie).

One woman called into the Y94 radio station in Fargo this week to say she doesn’t plan to just give Halloween candy to all of the children who come to her door.

She said she also plans to give a sealed letter to any overweight children who visit her, which the children are then supposed to give to their parents. In the letter, the woman plans to tell the parents that they are acting irresponsibly by sending their children out to seek candy when they are already overweight.

The letter, which Y94 says was emailed to them by the woman, reads in part:

“You [sic] child is, in my opinion, moderately obese and should not be consuming sugar and treats to the extent of some children this Halloween season.

“My hope is that you will step up as a parent and ration candy this Halloween and not allow your child to continue these unhealthy eating habits.”

In the future Obama, Sebelius, et al. will do the candy rationing for us, but for now they are busy setting up the rationing of healthcare.

Rather than addressing the crucial issue of reducing its own monstrous size before it crushes our society, the federal government held a hearing Tuesday as part of an attack on Stand Your Ground laws — an explicitly state matter. Fortunately Ted Cruz (R-TX) was at hand to lay utter waste to the liberal control freaks who have theatrically played the race card in their attempt to exploit the Trayvon Martin shooting as a means to undermine states’ rights and our individual right of self-defense.

Cruz began by offering his condolences for [Trayvon Martin’s mother Sybrina] Fulton’s loss, but quickly moved on to defend the trial by jury process that found Zimmerman not guilty of murder. He also noted, correctly, that the “subject of this hearing, the Stand Your Ground laws, was not a defense that Mr. Zimmerman raised. So this entire hearing–the topic of this hearing–is not the issue on which that trial turned.” …

“We know that some in our political process have a desire to exploit that tragic, violent incident for agendas that have nothing to do with that young man who lost his life,” Cruz continued. “We have seen efforts to undermine the verdict of the jury and, more broadly, to inflame racial tensions that I think are sad and irresponsible.”

A politician has to put it nicely.

Then, Cruz got to one of his primary points, which concerned that effect of Stand Your Ground laws on African-American communities. He rejected the notion, put forward earlier in the hearing that “no one could reasonably believe that Stand Your Ground laws protect those in the African-American communities who are victims of violent crimes.” He found that idea particularly remarkable since “a great many African-Americans find themselves victims of violent crime and have asserted this defense to defend themselves, defend their families, defend their children.”

Cruz also cited the fact that “in 2004 a state senator in Illinois by the name of Barack Obama co-sponsored an expansion of Illinois’ law providing civil immunity for those who use justifiable force to defend themselves” as evidence that similar laws could not possibly be racially biased.

BOO!

At least two universities are asking students to tone down their Halloween costumes so they’re not offensive to certain cultures and don’t perpetuate stereotypes. …

In a letter to students on the university’s website, [University of Colorado, Boulder, Dean of Students Christina Gonzales] said the school “has in the past witnessed and been impacted by people who dressed in costumes that included blackface or sombreros/serapes; people have also chosen costumes that portray particular cultural identities as overly sexualized, such as geishas, ‘squaws,’ or stereotypical, such as cowboys and Indians.”

Take note, Dallas Cowboys. The PC Police will come for you when they are done with the Redskins. Pussification by political correctness has reached the point that even cowboys snivel.

“My people are ranch people from Montana,” [university spokesman Bronson Hilliard] told Campus Reform. “When you dress up as a cowboy, and you have your sheriff badge on and a big cowboy hat, that’s not a representation of a cowboy, that’s not a representation of people who work on a ranch, that’s not a representation of people who live in the West, that’s kind of a crude stereotype.”

And we all know how hurtful to the self-esteem crude stereotypes can be.

Maybe it’s for the best that John Wayne didn’t live to see us reach this point.

Similar sentiments have been expressed at the University of Minnesota. There, the university’s Office of Student Affairs emailed students to say some costumes “inappropriately perpetuate racial, cultural and gender stereotypes” and urged them to choose wisely. …

Societal norms are determined by the culture at large, not by a pointy-headed, ideologically driven ruling class. Yet sometimes the ruling class demonstrates an alarming ability to stampede the masses in any direction it chooses, like drovers directing a herd toward a stockyard. For example, in 1974, the American Psychological Association, yielding to pressure from militant homosexuals, stopped listing homosexuality as a disorder. A generation later, Christian businesses are forced to close their doors for refusing to participate in blasphemous homosexual parodies of weddings. Now on to the next “civil rights” frontier:

In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychological Association (APA) drew a very distinct line between pedophilia and pedophilic disorder. Pedophilia refers to a sexual orientation or profession of sexual preference devoid of consummation, whereas pedophilic disorder is defined as a compulsion and is used in reference to individuals who act on their sexuality.

Nothing wrong with thinking about it; just don’t actually do it.

Again we see that moonbattery is imposed by increments. Otherwise the frog would jump out of the pot.

DSM VI will likely drop any reference to the subject. By DSM VII or VIII, we will see a listing for pedophobia, the shameful condition suffered by neurotically narrow-minded people who are judgmental about pedophilia.

APA’s decision has given rise to numerous pedophilia-advocacy groups, the chief of them being B4U-ACT, a non-profit grassroots organization based in Maryland. Created in 2003 primarily as a means for “minor-attracted persons” to be open about their sexual preferences in a supportive atmosphere, B4U-ACT is now widening the scope of their organization.

According to spokesperson and registered sex offender Paul Christiano, the pedophilia-advocacy group is “working towards de-stigmatizing the mental health community.” Christiano explained that negative societal attitudes towards minor-attracted persons “trickle down to policy-making and the mental health community.”

Having been down this road before, we know where the reengineered societal attitudes will take us. You can easily lose your job for failing to revere homosexuality, a practice regarded with near universal revulsion within living memory. The same will soon be true of pedophilia. Our government has already issued a pedophile stamp, so baby-rapers don’t have long to wait for their place on a pedestal.

The loyal drone Kathleen Sebelius has obediently agreed to fall on her sword so as to not break Obama’s lifelong streak of never having to take responsibility for anything:

Rep. Greg Harper (R-MS) was not about to let the Lightworker off the hook quite so easily. After all, they don’t call it SebeliusCare. But the Abortion Queen easily outwitted him with her Valley Girl repartee:

Although Supercilious can’t compete with Shrillary’s level of cold-blooded arrogance, “Whatever” may go down in the annals of America’s decline next to “What difference does it make?”

In the days of Christianity, people usually refused to go along with pure evil out of moral revulsion. Now that the dominant religion is political correctness, this is no longer the case. For example:

A female genital mutilation (FGM) campaigner was left in tears after an experiment intended to assess the impact of political correctness on the fight against cutting saw 19 people sign a fake pro-FGM petition within 30 minutes.

Leyla Hussein, 32, who suffered female genital mutilation as a child, approached shoppers in Northampton with the petition, which argued that as FGM was part of her culture, it should be protected.

During the 30-minute experiment, 19 people signed the petition and just one refused – a result Hussein blamed on the all-pervading culture of political correctness.

Disapproving of the practices of nonwhite cultures is considered racist. As has been drilled into our heads our whole lives, nothing is worse than being racist — not even sexually mutilating children.

According to a recent study by UNICEF, as many as 30 million girls are at risk of being subjected to FGM within the next decade, including 24,000 in the UK.

The health effects of FGM range from severe bleeding and problems urinating to cysts, infertility and complications in child birth.

It has also been linked to deaths, most recently that of Soheir Fawzy, a 13-year-old Egyptian girl who died earlier this year after undergoing FGM.

Under liberalism, there is no right and wrong. There is only correct and incorrect, as defined on an ad hoc basis by the pointy-headed screwballs who run the education, media, and government pillars of the moonbat establishment. Consequently, everything is permitted, at least potentially.

The ObamaCare debacle spirals ever downward into farce. At least in New York, the exchange site is apparently accessible. It has been sending beleaguered citizens in search of healthcare to a cupcake shop:

In yet another bungle for the botched government insurance rollout, the state Health Department has mistakenly listed numerous non-health-related business as enrollment sites — including a Brooklyn cupcake shop that has been besieged by callers.

“I have nothing to do with this,” said Carmen Rodriguez owner of Brooklyn Cupcake in Williamsburg. “I run a very busy establishment, and I’m like, what is going on?”

Because of the mistake, her bakery has gotten 150 calls from people seeking medical-insurance information.

“There has to be somebody who can help with ObamaCare; that’s their own mess,” she said.

Maybe they meant to list Katie Couric. After all, bureaucrats and spin doctors tell us the only real problem with ObamaCare is that it has not been explained well enough for us simpletons outside government to understand. Who better for that job than Katie Cupcake?

In light of the current regime being known worldwide for its illicit spying, this aspect of government agent indoctrination may cause irony overload:

The new FBI chief on Monday ordered all new agents and analysts to visit the national memorial to late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a reminder not to repeat the abuses of the U.S. investigative bureau’s past. …

The FBI kept files on King as a potential security threat in the 1950s and 1960s – even wiretapping his phones – because of what the bureau said were suspected ties to communism.

Actually, MLK’s ties to communists have been confirmed. But now that communists run the federal government, it is everyone else — including normal Americans and US allies — who gets spied on.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) gave the clearest indication that proponents of comprehensive immigration reform may make their final–and strongest–push to get legislation passed next year after House Republicans make it through their primaries.

Arizonans might recall that during his last primary, McCain defeated the infinitely preferable J.D. Hayworth by pretending to tack to the right. Despite an established track record of knifing his constituents in the back by supporting amnesty, he told the public he had learned his lesson. Voters who believed him were left with egg on their faces.

Astonishingly, McCain has not ruled out running yet again, even as he shamelessly encourages other pols to follow his lead by betraying the electorate once past primaries. Barack Hussein himself can’t top that for arrogance.

Muslims aren’t the only ones who thuggishly acquire political leverage by overreacting to cartoons. Fallout continues from a completely innocuous but inadvertently politically incorrect cartoon that ran more than four years ago:

The New York Post and its top editor must face a bias lawsuit brought by a woman who said she was fired for complaining about harassment at the newspaper and a political cartoon that some people said likened President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.

In a decision made public on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield said Sandra Guzman, a former associate editor, may pursue her case against the Post and Editor-in-Chief Col Allan, though not against the newspaper’s parent, News Corp.

The harassment consisted of “a sexually charged environment” — i.e., the usual he-said she-said squabbling about whether people behaved boorishly, which has no place in a courtroom.

[The judge] said Guzman, who is black and Puerto Rican, offered sufficient evidence that she faced “severe or pervasive harassment” based on her race and national origin, and might have kept her job but for objecting to a cartoon published on Feb. 18, 2009, that criticized a government stimulus package.

The cartoon, which ran soon after a chimpanzee chimped out and had to be killed by police:

Moonbats opportunistically chose to believe that the cartoon refers to Obama, although it is doubtful he personally wrote any stimulus bill. They managed to wring a foolish apology from Rupert Murdoch. They are still cashing in.

According to her employers,

Guzman was fired because the newspaper had closed its money-losing Tempo monthly, where she had worked, and that no other jobs were available for her. …

But the judge said there was an open question as to whether Guzman was fired because Tempo failed, and that evidence showed she could have been moved to an open, albeit lower-paying, job.

When some left-wing judge can dictate who will be employed and in what capacity at private companies, we have a serious problem. No more calling this the Land of the Free until we get it resolved.

Healthcare Commissar Kathleen Sebelius hasn’t even told them yet how little they will get paid under ObamaCare, and already doctors are rebelling en masse:

A poll conducted by the New York State Medical Society finds that 44 percent of MDs said they are not participating in the nation’s new health-care plan.

Another 33 percent say they’re still not sure whether to become ObamaCare providers.

Only 23 percent of the 409 physicians queried said they’re taking patients who signed up through health exchanges.

“This is so poorly designed that a lot of doctors are afraid to participate,” said Dr. Sam Unterricht, president of the 29,000-member organization.

Of those few who are participating in the program,

Three out of four doctors who are participating in the program said they “had to participate” because of existing contractual obligations with an insurer or medical provider, not because they wanted to.

Many complain that they have not been given a fee schedule, so they don’t know how much they will get paid.

One physician was so disgusted, he threatened to take only cash patients going forward.

“I am seriously considering opting out of all insurance plans including Medicare because of [ObamaCare].”

Some physicians said the pressure on insurance carriers to control costs is leading to rationed care.

“OBAMACARE is a disaster. I have already seen denial of medication, denial of referrals,” one doc said.

And they worry that stingy payments for medical services offered by insurers could put some doctors out of business and force others into retirement.

In short, ObamaCare is working exactly as planned. To completely Stalinize healthcare, communists need to go beyond destroying the health insurance industry; they need to drive greedy skill-oriented doctors out of the profession. A new breed of doctors will replace them, one not so interested in making money as in proving they can perform heart surgery just as good as any white boy.

When decent people gag on learning that the US Post Office is issuing a Harvey Milk stamp, it is not just that Milk’s sole notable accomplishment was to be acknowledged as a pervert. He was a particularly disgusting type of pervert that any healthy society would strive to eradicate rather than deify. Matt Barber has enraged liberals by drawing attention to Milk’s “deviant sexual appetite for underage, drug-addicted, runaway boys”:

Harvey Milk’s only claim to fame is that he was the first openly homosexual candidate to be elected to public office (San Francisco city commissioner). His chief cause was to do away with the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic. In 1978 Milk was murdered over a non-related political dispute by fellow Democrat Dan White.

And a “progressive” martyr was born.

Like many in the sacred (to moonbats) gay caste, Milk was drawn to the young — the illegally young:

One of Milk’s victims was a 16-year-old runaway from Maryland named Jack Galen McKinley. As previously mentioned, Milk had a soft spot in his, um, heart for teenage runaways. Motivated by an apparent quid pro quo of prurience, Milk plucked McKinley from the street.

Randy Shilts was a San Francisco Chronicle reporter and close friend to Harvey Milk. Though Shilts died of AIDS in 1994, he remains, even today, one of the most beloved journalists in the “LGBT” community.

Shilts was also Harvey Milk’s biographer. In his glowing book “The Mayor of Castro Street,” he wrote of Milk’s “relationship” with the McKinley boy: ” … Sixteen-year-old McKinley was looking for some kind of father figure. … At 33, Milk was launching a new life, though he could hardly have imagined the unlikely direction toward which his new lover would pull him.”

McKinley later committed suicide.

Milk didn’t have much use for what he called the “heterosexual model” of sexual relationships. He preferred multiple partners. This is how AIDS spreads so quickly. McKinley was hardly his only prey.

Another teen who crossed paths with Harvey Milk was Christian convert and former homosexual Gerard Dols. In a 2008 radio interview with Concerned Women for America, Dols shared of how – as a physically disabled teen – the “very nice” Harvey Milk had encouraged him in 1977 to run away from his Minnesota home and come to San Francisco.

According to Dols, Milk told him, “Don’t tell your parents,” and later sent him a letter with instructions. Thankfully, the letter was intercepted by Dols’ parents who then filed a complaint with the Minnesota attorney general’s office.

Too bad the authorities dropped the ball on this, no doubt for political reasons. If Milk had been thrown in prison where he belonged, California might have been spared the ignominy of an actual state holiday called Harvey Milk Day, and the nation as a whole might never have to behold Harvey Milk postage stamps.

You can tell a lot about people by the people they admire. Sometimes you can tell even more by the people they demand that others admire. Evidence that normalization of pedophilia will be the next great civil rights crusade continues to accrue.